Dragon Connection

Начало книги

I’m going to remember this day for the rest of my life, I thought to myself.

This was the day that I could no longer remember the gentle caress of the Soussa winds when I closed my eyes. Instead, as I blinked back the tears, all I could feel was the oppressive heat of the tunnel that I was trapped in, and the bite of the unyielding rocks.

And Dagan’s latest gift to me.

My lip curled in disgust and hatred at the thick mark of the brand on my upper right forearm. The three others before it had faded from an ugly red to a darker brown. They had stopped hurting. Sorta. Four branding marks for four failed attempts at escape from my prison beneath the world. There was space for just one more at the very top of my arm – but that would also be my last, wasn’t it?

Dagan Mar was the ‘Chief’ as he liked to call himself – which was just a fancy term for slave master. All of the others here called him much more colorful names behind his back. I didn’t even think that Tozut, which was Daza for horse-dung, was a good enough term for him. He wasn’t a tall man, but he was wiry and strong. Fair-skinned like the rest of those Middle Kingdomers, and he seemed to like inflicting punishments on all of us tribespeople brought here to the mines of Masaka.

Читать дальше →